Metal buttons for military uniforms, uniforms for policemen and firemen, and related fashion apparel have been assembled by hand for years. Such buttons vary in size from about 10 or 12 lignes to about 45 lignes in diameter. A ligne is a unit of measure in the art which is equal to 0.025 inch. Such buttons comprise a "shell" and a "back" as separate, discrete pieces. During a conventional time-consuming manual assembly process, the shell may be burnished about its outer rim and frequently on highlighted portions of imagery formed on a face of the shell. The button back is then received within the confines of a sidewall of a burnished shell to be crimped or closed onto the sidewall of the button back to form a completed button.